Edward Blakeney

Field Marshal Sir Edward Blakeney was a British Army officer. After taking part in the British occupation of Dutch Guiana as a junior officer and being taken prisoner by privateers three times, he participated in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland in 1799. Blakeney subsequently joined the expedition to Denmark led by Lord Cathcart in 1807. He went on to command the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Regiment of Foot and then both battalions of that regiment in many of the battles of the Peninsular War. After joining the Duke of Wellington as he marched into Paris in 1815, Blakeney fought in the War of 1812. He then commanded a brigade in the army sent on a mission to Portugal to support the constitutional government against the absolutist forces of Miguel I of Portugal in 1826. Blakeney's last major appointment was as Commander-in-Chief, Ireland, a post he held for nearly twenty years.